Maryland learned that the hard way Sunday night, as the No. 4 Terrapins managed to hang with No. 5 West Virginia in their third round Midwest Region clash Sunday night until star freshman guard Melo Trimble left the game with 8:25 remaining after being accidentally kicked in the back of the head by a teammate.

With Trimble, the team’s leading scorer and the only true point guard on the roster, sidelined, Maryland was lost against West Virginia’s frenetic full court pressing defense, and the Mountaineers punched their ticket to the Sweet 16 — and a showdown with undefeated Kentucky Thursday night — with a 69-59 victory at Nationwide Arena.

“Would the outcome have been different [if he’d stayed in]? We don’t know. But obviously we weren’t the same without him out there.”

As the rest of the game played out, Trimble — who wasn’t available for interviews after the game — sat at the end of Maryland’s bench, alternating between being inconsolable and despondent as he watched his teammates struggle to cope without him under the never-ending onslaught of West Virginia’s intense defensive pressure.

“The doctors decided,” Turgeon said. “The doctors decided that he didn’t pass enough of the tests to come back in. … So, yeah, sure, he was upset. He was playing well.”

Trimble had been playing extremely well, racking up 15 points and seven rebounds before the leaving, game-high totals in both categories for the Terrapins (28-7). But he never quite looked the same after getting crushed on a screen by West Virginia forward Nathan Adrian a few minutes before getting hit for the second time, a hit that also left him on the floor for several moments before he eventually made his way to the bench.

“The first time he hit his head, he was fine,” Turgeon said. “He bounced up, everything was clear, was evaluated by our physician, who said he could go back in.

“The second time he came out, he didn’t pass enough of the tests and his head was hurting … and [the doctors] said he can’t come back in.”

It was an admirable decision by the Maryland doctors to leave Trimble on the sidelines — one many other teams in the same situation, particularly with a certain other sport dealing with head injuries at the moment, might have made.

But that decision left Maryland powerless to stop West Virginia’s ferocious pressing defense, which forced the Terrapins into 23 turnovers that led to 26 points for the Mountaineers (25-9).

By playing 12 players, as coach Bob Huggins does, the Mountaineers always have fresh bodies on the floor and never have to worry about foul trouble, allowing everyone to play with maximum aggression at all times.

And once Trimble left the game with no one to replace him, West Virginia’s lead never went below five, and it seemed obvious to anyone watching the game only had one eventual outcome.

“Their press was good,” said Maryland senior Dez Wells, who committed eight of the Terrapins’ 23 turnovers. “They kept throwing a lot of bodies at us, and we turned the ball over more than we usually do and it worked in their favor.

“My hat goes off to Coach Huggins and his team. They did a good job tonight.”

And what does West Virginia get for doing so? A meeting with undefeated Kentucky Thursday night in Cleveland.